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On The Road Again
Bishop Castle, Rye, Colo. By RAY BALOGH | The Municipal
“After all,” goes the idiomatic rejoinder, “what can one man do?” Well, in Jim Bishop’s case: build a castle — a 160-foot edifice, half a century in the making, majestically rising at 9,000 feet above sea level and dwarfing the surrounding trees of the San Isabel National Forest near Rye, Colo. Bishop laid every single one of the thousands of stones used in the construction, handling them each an average of six times as he hauled them in from the nearby Wet Mountains, chiseled them to his own specs and mortared them into place. In addition, he felled and milled timber into lumber; carved railroad ties into archway forms; built scaffolding; hand dug foundation holes, some 12 feet deep; mixed his own mortar; created a complex pulley system; and crafted ironwork for stairs and customized hand railings, outdoor bridges and walkways, window frames, structural supports, inner roof support trusses and various ornamental enhancements. The result — so far — is a palace, albeit never inhabited, consisting of three stories of interior rooms, including a grand ballroom; soaring turrets; a steeple and bell tower; elevated wrought iron bridges and walkways; winding staircases; and a fire-breathing dragon made from discarded hospital warming plates and powered by a donated hot-air balloon burner. Bishop, who does acknowledge divine assistance — he describes the castle as “built by one man with the help of God” — began his tireless labor in 1969, a decade after he purchased the heavily forested 2 1/2-acre parcel when he was 15. Bishop and his dad, Willard, who owned an ornamental wrought iron shop, spent 10 summers preparing the groundwork for an eventual family cabin. Jim married his sweetheart, Phoebe, in 1967 and two years later commenced building a one-room cottage. In
ABOVE LEFT: A family of Amish visitors eyes the front facade of the 160-foot Bishop Castle. (Photo by Rejaymes/Shutterstock.com) BELOW LEFT: Jim Bishop, 77, perches atop a turret of his castle. He placed every stone in the construction and continues his 52-year labor of love of what some consider the largest one-man building project in the world. (Photo courtesy of www.bishopcastle.org) 12 THE MUNICIPAL | NOVEMBER 2021
